Dixon overwhelms young Monarchs on mat

DIXON – With the holiday break in the rear view mirror, Dixon wrestling coach Daniel O’Dell was concerned about what he might see in front of him Friday night when the unbeaten Bulldogs opened play in the East Central 2-A Conference.

DIXON – With the holiday break in the rear view mirror, Dixon wrestling coach Daniel O’Dell was concerned about what he might see in front of him Friday night when the unbeaten Bulldogs opened play in the East Central 2-A Conference.

Not to worry.

Dixon took care of business, taking advantage of four forfeits and earning five pins in rolling to a 70-6 victory over the young Monarchs, who while only earning one win turned in several other hard-fought matches.

“I think they did well considering we just came off a big break,” O’Dell said. “We just had practice on the first, second and today. So I was a little worried about kids making weight and being in shape, but they did well.

“Northside did a good job trying not to get pinned and things like that. But everybody did exactly what I was hoping they would do. We’ve been working some stuff at practice and they were all trying it today. So I’m excited going to Washington tomorrow for the duals.”

Halfway through the match, which started at 106 pounds, Dixon (6-0, 2-0) and Northside (3-7, 0-2) had the same number of pins – one, even though the Bulldogs had a commanding 28-6 lead.

But Dixon had second-period pins at 152 (Austin Antinori), 170 (Seth Schoonover) and 182 (Bradley Schoenecker) along with a first-period pin at 220 (Tyler Hudson) while Northside didn’t score a point in the last seven weight classes.

The match was a return home for Northside first-year coach Josh Condry, a 2004 Dixon graduate who wrestled for the Bulldogs at 189 and 215.

“I know what their mentality is here. I have a complete respect for this program and I’m glad to see it prosper the way it has, and I’m trying to get Northside to be the same way,” Condry said. “We’re a very new group. We’ve got two juniors, three sophomores and the rest are freshmen.”

One of the most competitive matches of the night was at 126, where in a battle of juniors, Dixon’s Zach Kahl edged Northside’s Douglas Bulla 6-4, while at 132 Dixon junior Teva Smith won 5-0 over sophomore Nate Luna in a bout that was just 2-0 after two periods.

“The kid was very, very strong,” O’Dell said of Luna. “It seemed like he (Smith) did so much work and he never really got any points from it. So I’m sure that was getting frustrating but he kept with it and kept plugging away and ended up doing pretty well at the end.”

Northside’s only win came at 138, where John McCann pinned Christian Yuhas with 50 seconds left in the first period.

McCann, a junior, is one of several veterans – Bulla and senior Joseph Locke are among the others – Condray is counting on to help lead the program.

Page 2 of 2 - “My core group has worked well together,” Condray said. “They come from a strong background with helping each other out at practice, making sure that they focus together. we’re trying to pull everybody together as an entire team to be strong like that.”

Dixon, meanwhile, continued to look strong heading into this weekend’s Eli Saleeby Duals at Washington High School and then a big ECC match against perennial state power Croatan on Tuesday before the Onslow County Cup next Saturday.

Now, O’Dell said, is the time for the Bulldogs to start gearing it up for a strong conference run heading into regionals and the state championships.

“Pretty much I look at January as our postseason. Matches in December are important, but we get a nice little break and we come back and this is where it all really starts to count,” he said. “You get the two pounds (weight allowance Dec. 25) and you get to figure out where everybody’s going to be for the regionals and state.”